Henry Scrymgeour-Wedderburn, 11th Earl of Dundee explained

Honorific Prefix:The Right Honourable
The Earl of Dundee
Office:Minister of State for Foreign Affairs
Primeminister:Harold Macmillan
Alec Douglas-Home
Term Start:9 October 1961
Term End:16 October 1964
Predecessor:Joseph Godber
Successor:Peter Thomas
Office1:Minister without portfolio
Monarch1:Elizabeth II
Primeminister1:Harold Macmillan
Term Start1:23 October 1958
Term End1:9 October 1961
Predecessor1:The Lord Mancroft
Successor1:The Lord Mills
Office2:Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland
Monarch2:George VI
Primeminister2:Winston Churchill
Term Start2:8 February 1941
Term End2:4 March 1942
Predecessor2:Joseph Westwood
Successor2:Allan Chapman
Office4:Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Term Start4:30 July 1954
Term End4:29 June 1983
Hereditary Peerage
Predecessor4:Peerage created as Baron Glassary
Successor4:The 12th Earl of Dundee
Office5:Member of Parliament
for West Renfrewshire
Term Start5:27 October 1931
Term End5:15 June 1945
Predecessor5:Robert Forgan
Successor5:Thomas Scollan
Party:Conservative

Henry James Scrymgeour-Wedderburn, 11th Earl of Dundee (3 May 1902 – 29 June 1983), was a Scottish nobleman, soldier and politician.

Background and education

Dundee was the elder son of Colonel Henry Scrymgeour-Wedderburn, de jure 10th Earl of Dundee, and Edith, daughter of John Moffat. He was educated at Winchester and Balliol College, Oxford, where he was president of the Oxford Union in October 1924. He graduated with a Master of Arts degree in 1926.

Political career

After leaving Oxford, he joined the Territorial Army on 8 April 1927, as a second lieutenant in the 6th/7th Battalion of the Black Watch. Wedderburn was elected Unionist Member of Parliament (MP) for West Renfrewshire from 1931 until 1945. He was appointed to be PPS to the President of Eden's board for two years before moving to the Ministry of Agriculture. In 1935, he was PPS to the Secretary of State for Scotland before being promoted as Under-Secretary of State for Scotland until the outbreak of the war. He served in the Second World War as an officer with the 7th Battalion, The Black Watch from 1939 to 1941, leaving with the rank of captain.

Scrymgeour-Wedderburn was wounded so returned to London politics. He was briefly Joint Under-Secretary of State for Scotland from 1941 to 1942. He was chosen as a member of the parliamentary delegation to China just as Japanese soldiers stormed Singapore. The delegates promised to offer the Chinese military support in a broader alliance to fight the occupation of Manchuria.

On 31 July 1952, the Scrymgeour family's claim to title of Dudhope and Scrymgeour in the Scottish peerage were accepted by the Lords Committee for Privileges;[1] and again on 18 May 1953 his claim to the earldom of Dundee and Lord Innerkeithing was affirmed. On 30 July 1954, he was created Baron Glassary, of Glassary in the County of Argyll, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, giving him an automatic seat in the House of Lords (not guaranteed by his Scottish peerages).

Macmillan chose Dundee minister without portfolio from 1958 to 1961 owing to a wealth of experiences at home and abroad. Dundee was successfully promoted to number two in the Foreign Office as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs from 1961 to 1964. Simultaneously he was Assistant Deputy Leader of the House of Lords from 1960 to 1962 and Deputy Leader of the House of Lords from 1962 to 1964. In 1959, he was appointed a Privy Counsellor.

Lord Dundee was also the Hereditary Royal Standard-Bearer for Scotland, a right established by his father before the Court of Claims in 1902. He was decorated with the award of Order of the Brilliant Star of China (with Special Cravat). He was awarded an honorary LLD by St Andrews University in 1954.[2]

Family

Lord Dundee married his brother's widow, Patricia Katherine Montagu Douglas Scott, granddaughter of William Montagu Douglas Scott, 6th Duke of Buccleuch, on 30 October 1946. She was in fact the widow of not one but two soldiers, both of whom were killed in action: Lt.-Col. Walter Douglas Faulkner MC of the Irish Guards (k. May 1940), and Lord Dundee's younger brother David Scrymgeour-Wedderburn DSO of the Scots Guards (1912–1944), with each of whom she had two children.

Lord and Lady Dundee had one child together:

Lady Dundee died on 3 December 2012 at the age of 102.[3]

His stepdaughter and niece Elizabeth married John Roper-Curzon, 20th Baron Teynham.

References

External links

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Notes and References

  1. Book: Dudhope Peerage; Proceedings before the Committee for Privileges and Judgment . Sessional papers . HL 1951–52 IV (139) 325 . 28 October 1952 . UK Parliament . 18 September 2020 . en.
  2. Burke's Peerage, 107th ed., (London 2003)
  3. Web site: Patricia Katharine Countess of Dundee 1910-2012. Peerage News. 7 December 2012 .